IHG Rewards Club Increases Award Night Costs for 2018

IHG just released the list of hotels that will have their Rewards Nights Points revised. Spoiler alert : devaluations aplenty

Edit (07/01/2018) : New Points redemption prices take effect 16 January 2018. [HT : Loyaltylobby and mommypoints.]

 

IHG Rewards Club, the loyalty program of the IHG Group of hotels which include the Intercontinental, Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo and so on, just announced their new Rewards Night pricing revisions for 2018 and boy it does not look good.

Note that as of now (2nd Jan 2018) , the points required for a night in the list of hotels having their points revised have not changed yet. So if you have an upcoming holiday and was thinking of using IHG points to redeem nights, better do it sooner rather than later as there is no exact date specified by IHG as to when the changes will be effected.

Devaluations Spree

I’ve combed through the Points Changes list released by IHG which can be found here, and below are some of the properties in the region and popular holiday destinations which have seen the number of points needed for a Reward Night go up

HotelCity2017 Point Requirement2018 Point RequirementPoints Change
InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong KongHong Kong50,00060,00010,000
InterContinental Hong KongHong Kong60,00070,00010,000
Holiday Inn Golden Mile Hong KongHong Kong40,00045,0005,000
Holiday Inn Osaka NambaOsaka30,00040,00010,000
Holiday Inn – ANA SendaiSendai-shi10,00015,0005,000
InterContinental – ANA The Strings TokyoTokyo50,00055,0005,000
Crowne Plaza – ANA Hotel Grand Court NagoyaNagoya-shi20,00025,0005,000
InterContinental OsakaOsaka50,00060,00010,000
Crowne Plaza – ANA OsakaOsaka-shi25,00030,0005,000
InterContinental – ANA Manza Beach ResortOkinawa60,00070,00010,000
InterContinental – ANA Ishigaki ResortIshigaki-shi50,00060,00010,000
Holiday Inn Macao Cotai CentralMacao S.A.R.35,00040,0005,000
Crowne Plaza QueenstownQueenstown40,00050,00010,000
Crowne Plaza Terrigal PacificTerrigal40,00050,00010,000
Holiday Inn Potts Point-SydneySydney30,00040,00010,000
Crowne Plaza AucklandAuckland30,00040,00010,000
Holiday Inn Auckland AirportAuckland20,00025,0005,000
Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City CentreSingapore40,00045,0005,000
Holiday Inn Express Singapore Orchard RoadSingapore30,00035,0005,000
InterContinental BangkokBangkok35,00040,0005,000
Holiday Inn ChiangMaiChiangmai10,00020,00010,000
Holiday Inn Express Bangkok SathornBangkok15,00020,0005,000
Holiday Inn Express Bangkok SiamBangkok15,00020,0005,000
InterContinental Beijing SanlitunBeijing50,00060,00010,000
InterContinental Paris – Le GrandParis60,00070,00010,000
InterContinental Bordeaux – Le Grand HotelBordeaux45,00055,00010,000
Hotel Indigo Paris – OperaParis45,00055,00010,000
Holiday Inn Nice – Saint Laurent du VarNice35,00040,0005,000
Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso SpaBora Bora60,00070,00010,000
InterContinental Le Moana Bora BoraBora Bora60,00070,00010,000
Holiday Inn Frankfurt – Alte OperFrankfurt Am Main30,00040,00010,000
Crowne Plaza Milan CityMilan30,00040,00010,000
InterContinental Amstel AmsterdamAmsterdam50,00060,00010,000
InterContinental London Park LaneLondon60,00070,00010,000
InterContinental New York Times SquareNew York60,00070,00010,000
Candlewood Suites New York City- Times SquareNew York40,00050,00010,000
Intercontinental San FranciscoSan Francisco60,00070,00010,000
Holiday Inn Express Mountain View – S Palo AltoMountain View40,00050,00010,000
InterContinental The Willard Washington D.C.Washington D.C.60,00070,00010,000

Thankfully back home, the Intercontinental Singapore, Hotel Indigo Katong, Holiday Inn Atrium and the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport (for the AV Geeks who want to have a staycation there) has been spared from this devaluation.

Properties in Malaysia have been spared the devaluations as well. (although you’ll find little reason to redeem points for hotels in Malaysia)

Most notably, all the prominent Intercontinental (IC) hotels like the IC London Park Lane, IC New York Times Square, IC Bora Bora and the IC Hong Kong have been promoted to 70,000 Rewards Points a night(!!). Making it now even more expensive to have stays on points purchased during IHGs points sales.

For comparisons sake, if you had purchased IHG points at their 100% bonus sales, your net cost per point would be roughly S$0.008. At the 2017 rates for IC Hong Kong, a stay on points over a weekend would only cost you S$480 at 60,000 points used. While at the 2018 rates, it would now cost you S$560. A whopping S$80 more.

If you were to book a night on their Flexible Rate however, your cost would only be at S$495, meaning it would be cheaper to book the room outright with cash after the devaluation.

Intercontinental Hong Kong Photo Credits : IHG

Hotels which have gone down in points

While the list of devaluated hotels are aplenty, there are some hotels which have went down in points. Below are a few that I selected :

HotelCity2017 Point Requirement2018 Point RequirementPoints Change
Staybridge Suites BakuBaku25,00020,000-5,000
InterContinental WuhanWuhan35,00030,000-5,000
InterContinental NantongNantong35,00030,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Express Stuttgart AirportLeinfelden-Echterdingen25,00020,000-5,000
Crowne Plaza BandungBandung25,00020,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Express Baruna BaliBali20,00015,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Cikarang JababekaCikarang20,00015,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Bandung PasteurBandung20,00015,000-5,000
Crowne Plaza Milan – LinateSan Donato Milanese30,00025,000-5,000
Crowne Plaza VientianeVientiane30,00025,000-5,000
Crowne Plaza TainanTainan30,00025,000-5,000
Crowne Plaza Istanbul – HarbiyeIstanbul25,00020,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Istanbul – SisliIstanbul25,00020,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Antalya – LaraAntalya20,00015,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Kayseri – DuvenonuKayseri20,00015,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Istanbul – KadikoyIstanbul20,00015,000-5,000
Crowne Plaza BasingstokeBasingstoke30,00025,000-5,000
Crowne Plaza FelbridgeWest Sussex30,00025,000-5,000
Crowne Plaza BelfastBelfast30,00025,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Express Southampton M27, Jct.7Southampton30,00025,000-5,000
Crowne Plaza Aberdeen AirportAberdeen30,00025,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Express Chester – RacecourseChester30,00025,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Express London – Golders Green (A406)London30,00025,000-5,000
Holiday Inn NorthamptonNorthampton25,00020,000-5,000
Holiday Inn PrestonPreston20,00015,000-5,000
Holiday Inn Express & Suites Orlando At SeaworldOrlando20,00015,000-5,000

Many of the hotels that had their points lowered for redemption are not in tourist hotspots. The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Orlando at Seaworld however, is an exception. A quick Google Map search shows its located very near to Seaworld. Seeing that the area is dominated by Marriott and Hilton, my guess is that they lowered the points required to encourage more people to stay with them.

The Indonesian hotels that have gone down a notch are also nowhere near the touristy area. The Holiday Inn Express Baruna Bali is a good 2.7km walk from Bali’s famed Kuta Beach.

Staybridges Suites Baku is another interesting property which has gone down in points as it’s located right smack in the city centre and in close proximity to the Formula 1 Street Circuit which hosts the annual Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. (F1 fanboy alert)

Yet another devaluation

With devaluations like this happening annually, it has become even more important that we adopt the “earn and burn” mentality towards the points we have. For us here who frequently purchase IHG points during their sales, it has also now become more expensive to book nights via this route, so check the paid rates before utilizing points for a redemption at IHG. You could come out ahead with using cash now instead of points.

[HT: Point Me To The Plane]

Matthew Chong
Matthew Chong
Addicted to luxury travel while trying not to go broke, Matthew is always on the prowl for the best deals in the travel industry. When he's not busy studying, he can be found trawling the internet and reading up on credit cards, airlines and hotels. He also wouldn't mind taking you out on a date.

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